In the month leading up to our trip, we spent time organizing excursions. Our first 3 nights away took us south of Lille, in the Normandy region, to Rouen, Bayeux, Nonant, the villages along the D Day Beaches, Honfleur, Etretat,Veulettes-sur-Mer, and Dieppe.
July 3
A short walk to the Lille Train station with all our gear for the next three days began our first adventure. We picked up the rental van, crammed in all our gear and were off.
Our first stop was Rouen. Rouen is a medieval city with beautiful buildings lining the old town. It is known as the place where Joan of Arc was tried and burned at the stake. There is a new-ish church at the sight of her death, Eglise Jeanne d'Arc, across from what is reputed to be the oldest restaurant in France. We walked the streets of the old town and saw the Atrium of Saint Maclou, the plague cemetery. Rouen was greatly affected by the plague, in 1348, 3/4 of the area's inhabitants died as a result of the plague. There are carvings of pick axes, skulls, and bones all over the buildings. As we were leaving, we even saw a little window box that had the remains of a mummified cat in it. We continued our walk around Rouen, stopping in front of Cathedrale Notre Dame, an ornately carved building that Monet visited and painted. The main street, or Gros Horoge, passes under an archway where the Great Clock is located. It's original construction only had the hour hand as that was sufficient for time telling in the past! In Rouen, we got our first sighting of the Seine. Our last stop in Rouen was for a delicious crepe lunch.
Examples of buildings.
Notre Dame, Rouen
Clock in the archway in Rouen.
Evidence of bullet holes still remain in this building where Canadians were shot by an SS Nazi division.
German cemetery.
Casements at Longues-sur-Mer.
Pointe du Hoc, looking over the English Channel.
Pointe du Hoc.
Poppies
Omaha Cemetery
Etretat
The beach at Dieppe.Our next stop was the city of Bayeux. Apparently known for its world famous tapestries, I did not see one. Bayeux was the first French town to be liberated June7, 1944 (a day after D-Day). It, therefore, remained relatively unharmed. We walked along the main street to Cathedrale Notre Dame where we climbed underground to the crypt. I lit a candle in memory of a very special person. We enjoyed dinner out, French Onion soup for me, to complete our first travel day.
We chose to stay in an Air B&B in Nonant, a tiny village close to Bayeux. Our host, Chantel lives in the same house that has been owned by her family since 1697. She was a lovely host. The home and setting were spectacular. Chantel had a couple of lively dogs, some donkeys, a few horses, and a number of chickens and ducks. Everyone enjoyed interacting with the animals, especially Abby. We enjoyed a glass of wine on the back deck of the home as the sun was beginning to set. A very civilized way to end a day in France.
July 4
Chantel served a traditional Normandy breakfast of homemade bread, toast, spice bread, butter, homemade jam, and coffee served in a bowl. Lots of delicious carbs. But when in France... As we were eating she headed out to her garden and picked some raspberries for us. The freshest fruit we will likely eat this entire trip. They were magnificent.
We set off for Arromanches at about 9. This was our first of the D-Day sites that we visited. All of the information I learned here was new to me and completely fascinating, thanks in main part to my most recently acquired historical crush - Winston Churchill. The allied forces needed to have a harbour in order to unload supplies needed for the war effort. Where there wasn't a harbour, Churchill conceived of one. Mulberry Harbour, a portable harbour, was set up at Arromanches. 146 cement caissons were towed over from England and sunk to form two semicircular breakwaters in which floating bridge spans were moored. After WWII, the area became known as Port Winston. At the Visitor's Centre, we watched a 360 degree movie that was effective in its ability to explain what had occurred without using any text or spoken word (beyond what was quoted by the original speakers). I was able to purchase a beautiful poppy scarf at the gift shop after the movie! We walked down the winding path toward Gold Beach and enjoyed a walk along the shoreline. Although there are remnants of the cement caissons still visible, it is difficult to imagine the carnage and destruction of what occurred in 1944.
At 1pm we met our guide, Philip from Normandy Sightseeting Tour, Canadian Edition, at the Place du Quebec in Bayeux. We had a private group tour so the 7 of us climbed into the mini bus and Philip shared some information about the Canadians and D-Day as we travelled around. At our first stop, we were shown a house off of a square called Place du Canadiennes in a small village. There is still evidence along the outside walls of the house of the bullet holes that were fired at Canadian troops. We learned about Kurt Meyer, an SS officer of Nazi Germany. He commanded the Panzer Division, also known as the Hitler Youth, a division made up of mainly 17 and 18 year olds who had been in the Hitler Youth since they were around 10 years of age.
Our next stop was Ardenne Abbey. Philip took us to the back of the abbey where there is a memorial garden to 18 executed Canadian Prisoners of War. Kurt Meyer and the German army took over the abbey on June 7, 1944 and brought their prisoners there. Kurt Meyer was complicit in the killing of these men. He was tried and convicted after the war. He even served some time in Canada. His lifetime sentence was commuted and he was released from prison in 1954. They abbey is now home to government offices.
Although I have visited a number of commonwealth cemeteries before, the experience is never redundant. Our guide took us to The Beny-sur-Mer Canadian War Cemetery. Here lie the remains of the Canadians who died on D-Day. In total, there are 2,048 soldiers buried there. The majority are Canadian, 4 are British and 1 is French, 19 are unidentified. There is a headstone that is turned to face the opposite way to all of the other headstones. This is a grave to honour a soldier whose remains are located elsewhere in the cemetery but due to the sheer numbers of dead at the time of burial, his specific location within the cemetery remains unknown.There are 9 sets of brothers located in this cemetery. Two towers, located at the entrance of the cemetery, allow visitors to climb and gain an elevated view of the cemetery. That is a sight that makes you pause. We all wandered through the rows of headstones. As always, it is jarring to read the ages of these men, some as young as 18 or 19 as well as to see the commonality in many of the dates of death on the headstones.
Our next stop was Canada House, located in Bernières-sur-Mer, the building that has become known as the first home in France to be liberated. Canada House is an iconic building and is privately owned. The owner, who recently died, had set up a permanent shrine to the Canadian soldiers and it was known that he would welcome any Canadian soldier who stopped by for a visit. The home is adorned with Canadian flags and memorabilia from the war can be faintly seen through the front windows. It is always a thrill to see a Canadian flag while away from home but these flags and this home as a greater meaning.
Our last stop of the tour was at the Juno Beach Centre. Here we were given about an hour to go through the visitors centre. Thankfully, I had been here before as an hour is not enough to explore the entire centre. Fortunately, we were able to watch the film as the final stop in the centre. It is entitled "They Walk With You" and is, in my opinion, a wonderful film that captures the reason why so many Canadians want to visit Juno Beach and why so many Canadians should want to visit Juno Beach.
Another interesting and new bit of information I learned on this tour was about funny tanks. Hobart's funny tanks were basically unusual looking vehicles used during the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy. These vehicles were designed as a result of the tough lessons learned from the Dieppe landing the previous year. Tanks like the amphibious swimming Sherman tank, the crab flail, the crocodile flamethrower and the bobbin carpet layer were all used.
Our tour ended where it began, back in Bayeux. We walked around town searching for a place to eat dinner and ended up enjoying our meal on pleasant outside patio.
July 5
Chantal once again started our day with the traditional Normandy breakfast, this morning, adding a traditional sweet bread, similar to a brioche. Obviously, it was delicious! With extra fruit in hand we set off for our next stop which was Longues-Sur-Mer. Longues-Sur-Mer is a part of the Nazis' Atlantic Wall. Located just west of Arromanches, large cement casements were built with 150mm German guns. They were designed to hit targets up to 20km away. The guns and the casements, as well as soldiers bunkers and lookout points are open for people to tour and climb in. It is very difficult to imagine the horror of war time as, when we visited, the sun was shining, the skies were blue, the fields were planted with their crops, poppies and wildflowers growing along the sides of the pathways, and I was happy to be with my adventurous travelling companions and to be near the ocean again. It just does not seem possible that this site was once one of blood and fear and destruction.
After we had walked around Longues-sur-Mer we climbed back in the van and continued west, down the road to Omaha Beach. This is the beach where the most brutal fighting took place on D-Day. US veterans refer to this area as Bloody Omaha. The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is where we stopped to explore this area. We walked to the cemetery first. This is a most impressive site. There are 9387 graves in this cemetery, a mere 1/3 of the American causalities of Normandy. Here there are 33 pairs of brothers. The remaining 2/3 of the dead were repatriated at the request of their families. See almost 10 000 white crosses or stars of David is truly overwhelming. Just when you think your eye has reached the end section of headstones, there is another section to gaze upon. The vastness of this cemetery is difficult to describe and is unbelievable to think that it consists of only 1/3 of those who died. Again, we spent a lot of time wandering through the headstones, reading names of those we do not know. Many of these men died at an incomprehensibly young age. At both ends of the centre mall there are memorial structures. The larger of the two is a huge semicircular structure with a statue called The Spirit of American Youth. There are massive and excellent maps in alcoves located on either side of the statue. These maps clearly explain the order of battle. Behind the statue is garden and a shorter semicircular wall with the 1557 names of those soldiers who were not found. Although beside very few of the names there is located a small rosette which indicates that he remains had been located after the memorial had been built. In the visitors centre, there are some artifacts from the war as well as some excellent films that describe different aspects of D-Day from the American perspective. This was an exceptional and overwhelming memorial.
There is so much to see and learn on the beaches of Normandy. We decided to have lunch on the go and picked up some grocery food at a road side store on our way to Pointe du Hoc, the furthest point west that we visited. It is also the highest pointed located between Utah Beach and Omaha Beach. It was here that US Army Rangers scaled the 100 foot cliffs in order to seize German artillery pieces. This mission was completed on D-Day, June 6, it was successful but at a high cost. Of the 225 Rangers, 81 were killed and 58 were wounded. Today, the area is open to the public to visit. The land is still pock marked with giant craters left behind by the bombing that occurred. The German command post and a number of bunkers and casements are still there and are able to be explored. Standing at the top of the cliffs and looking over, it is remarkable that anyone would be able to scale the cliffs at any time let alone at a time of war. It truly is a testament, yet again, to the desire by the Allied forces to overcome and defeat the German forces.
To end our time in Normandy, we decided to visit a German cemetery. La Cambe German war cemetery contains more than 21 000 German war dead. The headstones lay flat on the ground. Interspersed between the flat head stones are groups of 5 crosses. The stone of the headstone is black or brown. The cemetery is a contrast to both the Commonwealth Cemeteries and to the cemetery at Omaha Beach. In this cemetery, each headstone contained the names of two German soldiers. The centre of the cemetery housed a large hill which was a memorial to almost 300 unidentified and later discovered remains. Notably, many of the headstones indicated that the men had been born in 1926 and died in 1944. The entrance of the cemetery explains, "The German Cemetery at La Cambe: In the Same Soil of France Until 1947, this was an American cemetery. The remains were exhumed and shipped to the United States. It has been German since 1948, and contains over 21,000 graves. With its melancholy rigour, it is a graveyard for soldiers not all of whom had chosen either the cause or the fight. They too have found rest in our soil of France."
It was time to move on. Our education over the past couple of days had been enormous.
We were heading next to Honfleur to find our beds for the night in our next Air B&B. This was a contrasting location to Chantel's beautiful and historic home but we only needed a place to rest our heads so all was well. After dropping our luggage off we took a very short walk to the harbour of Honfleur. It was interesting to note that this was the location the Samuel de Champlain had sailed from a few times on his way to explore Acadia, Canada, and the founding of Quebec. Honfleur is another example of a city with beautiful old buildings including a church that we peeked our heads into that was built in the 15th century! We enjoyed our dinner overlooking the harbour. After dinner, we explored the lively market place, followed a marching band who seemed to have a set of 4 songs, and watched an ice cream kiosk employee that made homemade curly ice cream. Here ends another wonderfully busy day in France.
July 6
Today turned out to be the first really hot day we have experience in France. Temperatures reached 37 degrees. Our first stop was the sea side village of Etretat. Etretat boasts beautiful chalk cliff and arches. Some of the cliffs are as high as 300 feet. We hiked up to the top of the cliffs which gives a dramatic and impressive view over the English Channel. Back down on the rocky beach, Kim, Abby, and Calvin jumped in the water for a refreshing swim!
Tim marked a place on the map between Etretat and Dieppe (our final location for the day) and found Veulettes-sur-Mer, which became our perfect stopping point for lunch on the waterfront.
A short drive later and we arrived in Dieppe. Dieppe boasts a large and rocky covered beach. It was also the location of a disastrous battle in 1942 - 73% of the men who took part in the battle were killed, wounded, or missing in action. In the middle of the beach, there is a small and important monument to the Canadian soldiers who battled and lost their lives on the beaches of Dieppe. Our main objective in visiting Dieppe was to swim. And so, with Sharon watching on, we all jumped in the chilly but refreshing English Channel. A wave of appreciation is extended to all of those who battled so fiercely so that we could swim freely in these waters in 2017.
Here ends our first mini excursion of the summer of 2017. Our journey home to Lille took us about an hour and a half. After returning the van to the rental garage and picking up some groceries on the way home we ended our day watching the film Saving Private Ryan. Although most of us had seen the movie before, it sure took on a deeper meaning after all that we had just witnesses and learned.
Love, love the blog so far!! Since when have you taken on a historical crush of Churchill??
ReplyDeleteMe too ever since watching the Crown:) what's next on the itinerary???